Chapter 20. Adding New Team Members

Established teams sometimes need to add new team members in the middle of a project. Whether the cause is attrition, company reorganization, accelerated deadlines, increased workload, or something else, it’s crucial for new team members to be added thoughtfully and integrated quickly. Even in the best-case scenario, teams will temporarily slow down as they adjust to having new people in their midst and as new team members learn the ropes. When the wrong team member is added or the right member is added without a plan, this slowdown can be long and drawn out, proving Brooks’ Law, which states “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” [BROOKS].

The good news is that with some forethought and ...

Get The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.